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ACM History Committee
Mary HallComputer Science and ISIUniv. of Southern California
Michael S. MahoneyHistory of SciencePrinceton University
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
ACM History Committee Charter
The ACM History Committee fosterspreservation and interpretation of thehistory of the ACM and its role in thedevelopment of computing.
To this end,the Committee providesguidance within the Association and carries out activities independently
andin collaboration with other groups.
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
ACM History Committee Members
Co-Chairs:Richard Snodgrass, Computer Science, University of Arizona, rts@cs.arizona.edu David S. Wise, Computer Science, Indiana University, dswise@cs.indiana.edu
Historians:William Aspray, Informatics, Indiana University, waspray@indiana.eduMichael S. Mahoney, History, Princeton University, mike@princeton.edu
SIG Governing Board Liaison:Mary Hall, USC Information Sciences Institute, mhall@isi.edu
Publications Board Liaison:Carol Hutchins, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences Library, hutchins@nyu.edu
ACM HQ Representative:Patricia Ryan, Deputy Executive Director, ACM, ryan_p@acm.org
Len Shustek, Chair, Board of Trustees, Computer History Museum, len@shustek.com
Webmaster Joseph A. November, History, Princeton University, november@princeton.edu
ACM Staff contact for logistics: Monique Chang, Human Resources Director, ACM, chang@hq.acm.org
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
OUTLINE
• Motivation• Activities of the History Committee• Archiving SIG History• History of Computing • Possible SIG Contributions
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
Why a History Committee?
• Created in July 2004• Why now?
– ACM will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2007.– Few of those present at the founding of ACM
are still with us.– In the past two years, four Turing Award
winners have died.– There are ACM conferences for which no
printed proceedings can be located.
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
Because we don’t know our history.
• What was the impetus for the 18 transactions and 8 journals?
• What was the genesis of the 24 SIGs? What was the arc of those that no longer exist?
• Where did early and middle leaders see the field going? How did their vision shape it? In what ways were they prescient and what did they not foresee?
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
The History of ACM is Important!
• ACM, as the first society of computing, should not only contribute to the future of information technology, but should document its past.
• What does the last fifty+ years of ACM tell us about the next ten years, the next fifty years, both of ACM and of computing in general?
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
History Committee Activities:Oral Histories
• Collecting, and (co-)sponsoring oral histories– Turing award winners
• Richard Karp, Robert Tarjan • Also, SIGMOD sponsored Charles Bachman oral history
– Former ACM presidents• Franz Alt, Bernie Galler, Walter Carlson and Anthony
Ralston (co-sponsored by SIAM)
• Identifying potential interviewees– 46 Turing award winners– 20 former ACM presidents– 6 former ACM executive directors– 10 early staff members and influential ACM leaders
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
History Committee Activities:Turing Award web site
• Initiated by ACM Publications
• Now edited by Thomas J. Bergin, Jr., co-editor of History of Programming Languages II, and former editor of Annals of History of Computing
http://www.acm.org/awards/recipients.html
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
Other History Committee Activities
• ACM History website– This will allow us to link to historical information and
SIG activities
• ACM Archive Project– Archiving files as ACM moves its headquarters
• National Museum of American History Digitization– Transcripts of ACM Presidents Franz Alt, Herb Grosch,
Alton Householder, Harry Huskey, and John Mauchly, and ACM influential leader Paul Armer, along with a round-table discussion at an ACM conference in 1967.
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
SIG Activities to Preserve History:Technical Conferences
• Consistent record-keeping of conferences– Program committee– Keynotes– Schedule and session chairs– Submission breakdown by country– Acceptance/rejection rates by sub-topic
• Most of this information is known by the program chair, some is not preserved
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
Example: from SIGPLAN PLDI 2005 ConferenceCoverage, According to Area (1 of 2)
0 10 20 30 40
Novel
Prog. Repr.
Language
Compiler/arch.
Object-oriented
Debugging
Mem. Mgmt.
Domain-specific
Model and theorem
DynamicA
reas
% of papers
AcceptedSubmitted
Categories from submission, most papers provided multiple categories. Average = 3
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
SIG Activities to Preserve History:Archives and Web sites
• Track program committee members, authors, SIG organization, awards
• Some portions strictly for organizational purposes, others visible to ACM community
• Examples?
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
SIG Activities to Preserve History:Retrospectives
• Retrospective Conferences– SIGPLAN History of Programming Languages– SIGGRAPH Pioneer Day
• Published Retrospectives– 20 Years of PLDI (SIGPLAN)
• SIG History Committee (SIGMOD)• Awards
– Awards for service and technical achievement– PLDI Most Influential Paper (10 year retrospective)– ICSE Most Influential Paper (10 year retrospective)
Disclaimer: Apologies for over-emphasis on SIGPLAN activities, which I know more about. Tell us what other SIGs are doing!
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
History of Computing: Institutions
• IEEE Annals of the History of Computing– http://www.computer.org/annals/
• Charles Babbage Institute– http://www.cbi.umn.edu/
• Software History Center– http://www.softwarehistory.org/
• Computer History Museum – http://www.net.org/index.html
• National Archive for the History of Computing (UK)– http://www.chstm.man.ac.uk/nahc/
• ...
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
History of Computing on the Web
• Tom Haigh’s Computer File• JAN Lee’s site at Virginia Tech• Tim Bergin’s Computing History
Museum• Computer History Museum• Charles Babbage Institute• ACM Portal• Multics, …
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
History of Computing: Issues
• Until recently, focus on hardware• Now shifting to software
– Systems software– Applications software
• Last done from perspective of domains of application– Histories of computing(s)
• e.g. Cortada, Agar, Haigh,
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
ENIAC
EDVAC, EDSAC and others
Business, Industry& Government
files and accountstabulation
organization of production
management
Design & maintenanceof large systems
electricitytelecommunications
Technology & Science
mathematical calculation
mechanicallogic
EDP
OR/MS
automationrobotics
ESS
Computer Science
scientific computation
computational science
theorysystems
AI & human augmentation
mainframesminismicro
Internet/WWW
©2004 msm
Convergent History
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
ENIAC
EDVAC
Business, Industry& Government
data processing organization of production
management design & maintenanceof large systems
electricitytelecommunications
Technology & Science
mathematical calculation
mechanicallogic
EDP OR/MS automationrobotics ESS
scientific computation
computational science
Computer Science
theorysystems
human augmentation
military C&C
SAGEWWCCS
C3I
c o m p u t e r s
artificial intelligenceartificial life
©2004 msm
Communities of Computing
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
SIG-sponsored History
• PLAN – HOPLs I (1978), II (1993), III (2006)
• GRAPH – Milestones in Computer Graphics (1989)
• SOFT – Impact Project http://www.sigsoft.org/impact/index.htm
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
SIG-sponsored HOx?
• Operating Systems• Databases• Graphics• Communications• Computer Science• Software Engineering• Computer-Human Interface• ...
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
UPCOMING ACTIVITY!
• 2007 CACM Special Issue on ACM History to coincide with 60th anniversary
• Open to suggestions from SIGs– How do you want your SIG represented?– Do you have specific historical activities
we should highlight?– Volunteers?
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
Summary
• We are a resource for the SIGs– Let us know of your historical activities and we
will help publicize them!– If you would like to start new activities, let us
know how we can help!
• The SIGs can help us– Tell us how you are preserving your history so
perhaps other SIGs can follow your lead.– Help ACM collect and preserve information in
your area.– Co-sponsor oral histories for luminaries in your
area.